The So-called Zeb-un-Nisa Tomb Lahore before Restoration in 2014

February 5, 2014

There is some controversy as to who is buried in this tomb which is commonly ascribed to Zeb-un-Nisa, the eldest daughter of Aurangzeb. Zeb-un-Nisa would have been only eight years old during the last days of Shah Jehan and could not have conceived and executed the construction of a garden tomb of this scale. Besides, there is evidence that Zeb-un-Nisa had died in the Salim Garh Fort, a residential area of the Red Fort at Delhi in 1701 and was buried in the garden of "Thirty Thousand Trees" outside Kabuli Gate. In 1885, her tomb was shifted to Akbar's mausoleum at Sikandra when the railway line was laid out in Delhi. Most historians suggest that the tomb may actually belong to the same Mian Bai (also known as Fakhr-un-Nisa) who was gifted the Chauburgi garden by Jahan Ara, the daughter of Shah Jehan. In addition to Chauburji's garden, she was also entrusted to look after the Mughal garden in Nawankot, and upon her death; she was buried in this tomb in Lahore.

Square on plan, the tomb stands on an elevated brick platform. The chamber measuring 26 feet 9 inches on each side, is crowned with a double dome, pyramidal from the outside and hemispherical on the inside. Each facade of the square tomb is punctured with a central peshtaq cusped arch in the center, flanked by cusped arch insets and low-height doorways, through which the internal chamber containing the unmarked grave is visible.

No contemporary source records the original decoration executed on the tomb. However, it is related that the edifice was once among "the most beautiful Mughal edifices at Lahore, decorated with costly stones, and furnished with pavilions, fountains, and reservoir." Latif believes that Ranjit Singh removed its costly materials to construct his summer house in Hazuri Bagh (adjacent to Lahore Fort).